AMERICA’S ‘BIG BELLY’: How Will History Judge Us?

It is so hard to see what is going on unless you are able to take a step back and get the panoramic view.

It’s like fighting the problem with an ever-increasing waist line. Usually it goes unnoticed to the one who’s growing the belly until some old pictures of past times are pulled out of the scrapbook.

“Wow!” I’ve often respond when looking at old pictures of myself. “Look how skinny I was back then. How did I gain so much weight?”

Eating and sitting on my butt is the short answer. Every day that I over-eat and eschew exercise, I provide an opportunity for my belly to balloon. That is why exercise is a billion dollar industry. Trying to undo the effects of undisciplined behavior becomes very heavy lifting. Loose living is not easily overcome.

As I, and millions of others, slowly roll into our seventh decade upon this earth, it becomes harder and harder to blame others for the condition that America finds itself in. No longer can we blame our parents’ generation, but must come to understand that when the “torch was passed” to a new generation of Americans, the responsibility for the fruit grown in the vineyard must now rest upon those of us who were supposed to be “tending the garden” of America.

We’ve dropped the ball. My generation, the baby boomers and the hippies, are now great grandpas and must bear the blame for what America has become. America has grown lazy, self-indulgent and apathetic as our waistline continues to sag over our belts. In covetousness and greed we have eaten the inheritance of “our children’s children.”

How will history judge us? Well, I have a few thoughts that I’d love to share today. It has been said that hindsight is 20/20. Perhaps it is time we took a peek in the review mirror, for history will be our judge.

A century from now, if there is still a planet here, historians will look back at the latter half of the 20th century and first two decades of the 21st and scratch their heads as they ponder, “What were they thinking?” Indeed, what WERE we thinking? Those who study us will ask:

How could a nation built upon such clear-cut Christian principles have so openly and purposefully rejected the values of their forefathers?

How could the wealthiest nation in the world have allowed their currency to be removed from the gold-standard and believe that the “full faith and credit” of the government was enough to keep evil men from destroying the financial system?

How could a nation built upon the nuclear family redefine that institution in such a way as to make the term nearly meaningless?

How could a nation whose laws were built upon two tablets permit the wrecking ball of litigation to remove those teachings as foundational, generational beliefs from the hearts of their children?

How could the false teaching of separation of church and state become so ingrained in the minds of Americans that public prayer would be ruled illegal?

How could a nation of laws have permitted unelected judges to determine what law is?

How could the Christian churches be so willing to yield the moral education of their children to an amoral, atheistic system designed to install the God of Government as the granter of all liberties?

How could the people have possibly fallen for the folly that there was no difference between a man and a woman, or a father and a mother, and that children would not be affected by the absence of either?

How could we have possibly allowed our children to be taught that all relationships were the same and that sex was normal no matter which appendage you chose to insert in what opening?

How did we permit “rights” to be judged on such base unnatural behaviors?

How could a man with three Muslim names be elected President of the United States in the midst of the greatest surge of Islamic extremism in the history of America?

How could Christian churches permit the nation to be taught that Christians and Muslims serve the same God?

How could a nation buy into the lie that spending more than one earns will lead to financial prosperity?

How did the defense of Biblical morality become “hate” while the drive for debauchery and licentiousness become loving and tolerant?

How could the churches actually believe that non-Christian governmental leaders would lead to a society where Christian values and laws would be supported? And how could they believe that the Republican Party would become the standard bearer of the truth for millions of Bible believers?

How did the minority become powerful enough to bully the majority?

How did the preaching of sin and repentance give way to the gospel of tolerance and personal fulfillment? How did the threat of hell-fire damnation go the way of pay-phone booths?

How could America have permitted the slaughter of unborn children in the womb of their mothers for no other reason than the inconvenience of motherhood? How could they possibly have thought that there would be no consequence to such barbaric behavior?

How could the American people have permitted electronic voting in an age when computer hacking was as easy and common as the dialing a telephone?

How could a nation that was birthed by The Black-Robed Regiment give way to pulpits filled with man-pleasing, corporate, government-controlled churches?

How could the nation embrace and teach to their children as normal a lifestyle that is incapable of reproducing progeny? How could a religion replete with examples of the “judgment of God” so easily capitulate to the sinners’ cry to “Judge not?”

How did we expect God to “bless America” when so much of what we did flew in the face of everything He taught us?

About the author: Dave Daubenmire

Dave Daubenmire is a veteran 35 year high school football coach who was spurred to action when attacked and sued by the ACLU in the late 1990s for praying with his high school football team. After a two year battle for his 1st amendment rights, the ACLU relented and offered coach an out of court settlement.